Investors worried about potential losses among banks from office real estate loans after comments from executives, including Wells Fargo & Co's (WFC.N) Chief Executive Officer Charlie Scharf and Blackstone President Jonathan Gray at a Sanford C Bernstein investor conference. Meanwhile, Blackstone's Gray talked about "unprecedented weakness" in older office buildings while noting that this segment currently makes up less than 2% of company's equity portfolio in real estate. Rick Meckler, partner, Cherry Lane Investments, a family investment office in New Vernon, New Jersey said "continued concern over loans made to the office market," was hurting bank stocks broadly on Wednesday, citing the Wells Fargo comments. "The implication is that there are those that will suffer even if Wells Fargo is diversified enough," Meckler said. KeyCorp, down 5.5%, was the biggest decliner in the S&P bank index, and Zions was next, down 4.9%.

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Persons: Andrew Kelly, Wells, Charlie Scharf, Blackstone, Jonathan Gray, Sanford C, Wells Fargo's Scharf, Blackstone's Gray, Gray, Bernstein, Rick Meckler, Meckler, Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, Zions, Sinéad Carew, Mehnaz Yasmin, Nick Zieminski Organizations: Citibank, New York Stock Exchange, REUTERS, Banks, Investors, Buyers, Cherry Lane Investments, Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase &, Bank of America, Citizens Financial, Western Alliance Bancorp, PacWest Bancorp, Comerica, PNC Financial Services, Fifth Third Bancorp, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, Thomson Locations: Manhattan , New York City, U.S, New Vernon , New Jersey, New York, Bengaluru